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Starting Secondary School - Transition Information for Parents
Starting Secondary School - Transition Information for Parents
Tips to Help Your Child be Ready for Secondary School
Tips to Help Your Child be Ready for Secondary School
Transitioning from Primary School to Secondary School can bring considerable stress, confusion and lower functioning of students as the student attempts to make sense of all the change. This can also impact their parents, carers and families.
With the first day of MSCW rapidly approaching, there may be a mixture of excitement, nervousness and fear, which is completely natural. Reassure your child. It can help to talk about their feelings or fears and share your own experiences of times when you felt the same.
HOW CAN YOU HELP PREPARE YOUR CHILD?
No matter what your child’s experience has been of Primary School, Secondary School can be a fresh start.
Be positive and help with the practical stuff.
Get to know the Secondary School and routine and attend orientation and transition events.
Your child will be given a timetable - have a look together and ask them to describe how they get there from Tutor classroom or the Student Office. Practice what to say if they get lost or are unsure where to go.
Talk through your child’s timetable and make copies for them to keep at home and at school. Find out what time School starts and finishes and when scheduled breaks occur so your child knows what to expect.
Join the School's social media channels to stay up-to-date.
Let the School know if your child needs extra support.
SOME THOUGHTS ON:
Organisation and Planning
Create a quiet study space with everything they need.
Uniform
Is their School bag packed and ready with all the equipment and stationery needed?
Have they tried on their uniform and given the family a parade?
Travel
Secondary School might be that much further than the local Primary School and getting to/from School needs some consideration and planning. Practice getting to/from School and discuss safety issues to assist in managing different situations such as missing a bus. Will your child need to get up a bit earlier to be ready for the bus or a lift? Practice getting up earlier and setting an alarm during the holidays to help establish the new routine.
Sleep
Most parents will tell you a teenagers’ brain isn't ready to wake up until after 8am or 9am in the morning. Adolescents need more sleep than they did as children and their circadian rhythms appear to be set later than children or adults. Most teens function optimally on 9.25 hours of sleep. Adolescents getting only 5-6 hours of sleep a day lose out on the last two REM cycles and thereby reducing the amount of time the brain has to consolidate information into long-term storage. Sleep deprivation is also associated with weight gain, moodiness, poorer attention and increased use of caffeinated stimulant drinks to become alert. Encourage your teen to develop healthy sleep habits and a bedtime routine.
Making Friends
This can feel very daunting and does not come naturally to everyone. Brainstorm together some ideas on how to make new friends and what makes a good friend. Remind your teen of all their wonderful strengths and qualities and provide some gentle encouragement around connecting with like-minded people and those with similar interests. It is not uncommon for students to change their friendship ‘group’ in the first couple years of Secondary School as they learn to build healthy relationships.
Bad Days
The ability to face and adapt to new circumstances is a life skill and builds resilience.
Acknowledging the uncomfortable and challenging moments in life can help to normalise having bad days and the ability to show up in the face of a challenge. Share some difficult experiences you may have faced and how you overcame them.
Share
Recalling and delighting in our past positive experiences has been reported in research to improve our sense of wellbeing in stressful times. Sharing positive experiences or things you feel grateful for can be a simple practice to do around the dinner table.
ONLINE SUPPORT RESOURCE
KidsHelpline: Parents | No problem is too big or too small | Kids Helpline
Transition to Secondary School Scenarios has some very useful online tips for responding to peer pressure and provides some typical Secondary School scenarios that can be explored and considered.
REACHOUT: ReachOut Parents
From fitting in to feeling alone, Transition to Secondary School for teenagers - ReachOut Parents covers a range of topics on the Secondary School transition to help navigate this time of significant change.
Gearing up for Parent Engagement in Student Learning: link
An online toolkit developed for families to help make the transition from Primary to Secondary School a great experience. This guide to nurturing your child through transition provides a lot of practical tips.
SchoolTV: link
A free online resource that contains short clips for parents with tips on how to support your child with the transition to Secondary School.
REACH OUT FOR SUPPORT
Reach out for support
We all have bad days but there are times when we need a different perspective, a helping hand or some extra support. Speaking to the following people may help -
In-School support:
Tutor Teacher
Classroom Teacher
House Coordinator
Learning Support Officers
Leader of Wellbeing
Student Admin Officer
School Counsellor
Out-of-School supports:
Parent/Carer/Extended family
Friends
Community/Cultural groups
Coach/Tutor
Online services - ReachOut Australia, Online & phone support | headspace, Beyond Blue, Youth support and services - Beyond Blue
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